Best VPN For Gaming in 2023 | The Ultimate VPN Guide

In recent years, the practice of using a VPN for gaming has skyrocketed. For some, it’s borderline cheating, as the key desire is to enter lobbies hosted in a region with ‘less competition’. For others, it’s a way to remain safe while playing online and keep personal information as secret as possible. However, grey area or not, everyone is eager to find out about the best VPN for gaming in 2023 – it can bring about countless benefits, after all.

In this guide, we’re breaking down the benefits of using a VPN for gaming. We’ll be listing out the best VPNs for gaming across multiple platforms: PC, console, and mobile. If you’ve been wondering about investing in the best VPN for gaming, look no further than this guide – we’re going to clear up just which service that is. Read on to learn everything you need to know about VPNs and how they can ultimately aid your gaming experiences.

Why Use a VPN For Gaming?

There are a few reasons why you’d want to use a VPN for gaming – and almost all of them are good, honest reasons. For some, using a VPN is a form of cheating, but for the most part, it’s not something malicious, and it can’t really produce an unfair advantage for players using them.

Here are some of the reasons why you would consider learning how to use a VPN for gaming:

It can essentially protect you from DDoS (Distributed-Denial-of-Service) attacks
It can reduce the risk of ‘swatting’ by concealing your personal information
It can allow you to play geo-blocked games and access geo-blocked features
It can reduce lag and ping in multiplayer games
It can allow you to avoid ‘hot zones’ for cheaters

Those are just a few of the key benefits of VPNs for gaming.

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How to Use a VPN for Gaming

For the most part, it’s very easy to learn how to use the best VPN for gaming. Most of these services are very accessible – especially the ones that require a subscription or a one-time payment. They’re what’s known as ‘plug and play’, which means that you’ll download something, sign in, select a location to ‘connect to’, and that’s it – you’re online, masked, and for the purposes of the network, you’re in a completely different part of the world.

Let’s put out a scenario that highlights what a VPN does for gaming:

You usually play on London-based servers on a particular multiplayer game, but you realise that there are often cheaters on these servers
You sign up to use the best VPN for gaming and install the software to your device
You connect instead to another region – let’s say the Middle East – and the game’s infrastructure now believes that’s where you are, so they connect to another server
You are now able to avoid the influx of cheaters on London’s servers, despite still being in that area

That’s the most common reason (and method) that people will use a VPN when gaming.

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Best VPN For Gaming in 2023

So, out of the dozens of services that exist, what is the best VPN For gaming in 2023? There are two key services that are tried and tested among gamers, but they both require a paid subscription. They’re unparalleled in what they offer, and it doesn’t matter if you’re looking for hte best VPN for console gaming or the best VPN for cloud-based gaming, they’re there to support you.

NordVPN

NordVPN has been around for quite a while, and thanks to some key partnerships with content creators and streamers, it has seen its profile grow immeasurably over the years. It’s an easy-to-use, one-stop solution for gaming looking to soak up the benefits of a VPN for gaming, and it’s not all that expensive, either. It can be paid for either monthly or yearly, and while there isn’t a free option, it’s well worth the money simply for how reliable it is.

It’s best known for providing lag-free, high-speed connectivity that can be activated with the press of a button. It’s arguably the best VPN for PC gaming in 2023 – and that’s saying something.

ExpressVPN

Those that aren’t using NordVPN are using ExpressVPN – it’s that simple. It’s considered by many reviewers to be the best VPN for gaming by far, simply because it’s so simple and effective. Like NordVPN, ExpressVPN works across a range of platforms, but it’s arguably best designed for those looking to use the top VPN for PC gaming. It’s ever so slightly more expensive than NordVPN, but it’s perfect for streamers and content creators, and it’s accessible across so many different devices.

If there’s one drawback to ExpressVPN, it’s that it’s only accessible to a certain amount of devices at once, but that’s not a problem for an individual user.

What is the Best Free VPN For Gaming?

There’s a saying – ‘it isn’t good if it’s free’, and that can ring true when looking for the best free VPN for gaming. For the most part, free VPN services are only available through clever means – such as rinsing free trials over and over again with different credentials. It’s not the best way to go about it, but it works – for a limited period of time, at least. Typically, free VPN services are very limited, offering restricted bandwidth and speeds that are evolved by paying for ‘higher tiers’.

Here are some examples:

ProtonVPN – It’s free and unlimited, but the number of locations you can connect to is extremely limited
Windscribe –  It’s free, but you only get 10 GB bandwidth per month, which will run out very quickly
Hotspot Shield – It’s free but you only get 500 MB of bandwidth per day – which equates to around 15 GB per month

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Frequently Asked Questions About the Best VPN for Gaming